In the drilling of wellbores for hydrocarbon exploration and production, a portion of the wellbore will be drilled and cased with a casing, and thereafter the length of wellbore will be extended by further drilling. During the further drilling, the drillstring extends through and contacts the casing, which contact by the drillstring may cause casing wear. Casing wear may be particularly pronounced in deviated portions of the wellbore (i.e., those portions of the wellbore that are not vertically orientated). Although some casing wear is expected, excess casing wear can adversely affect both structural integrity of a wellbore as well as the casing's ability to withstand exposure to high pressures within the casing (e.g., during hydraulic fracturing, and formation pressure).
As the length and geometrical complexity of wellbores increase with improved drilling technology, existing casing wear models cannot accurately predict casing wear.